by Hand to Hold Staff | Mar 16, 2017 | Mental Health
Practicing self-care is important for all of us and even more crucial for parents of preemies and children with special needs. Below are several examples of how you can nurture yourself and make self-renewal a part of your everyday life in the four areas of...
by Kelli Kelley | Feb 8, 2017 | Mental Health, NICU Life
I was told it was important to bond with my baby. But I did not know how to bond with a child I couldn’t feed, hold or bathe. One that weighed a little more than a pound and was clinging to life on a respirator. I was so scared to touch him because I knew his fragile...
by Hand to Hold Staff | Feb 6, 2017 | Mental Health
It’s been four years, almost to the day, since I gave birth to my preemie at 29 weeks, weighing 2lb 6oz. Nothing at all like the big, bouncing baby boy I had been fantasizing about. Yet, he was the most beautiful, and tiniest, baby I had ever seen. Being rushed by...
by Leigh Ann Torres | Jan 16, 2017 | Life after the NICU, Mental Health, NICU Life
As a supportive network of NICU parents, we do our best not to compare experiences, but to recognize that everyone’s experience is different, and everyone’s feelings about that experience are completely valid. It seems no matter how long the NICU stay,...
by Hand to Hold Staff | Dec 22, 2016 | Life after the NICU, Mental Health
Three and a half years ago, we bundled our second preemie into her car seat and left the NICU in our rearview mirror. We have since moved to a new state, built a house, and started new jobs. Our kids run and play, and on the surface, they look nothing like the tiny...
by Hand to Hold Staff | Dec 15, 2016 | Mental Health, NICU Life
I won’t lie, being a NICU parent was hard. I cried a lot. It was also surprisingly rewarding. The longer your baby is in the hospital, the harder it gets. My son, Theo, a 27-weeker, spent over 200 days in the hospital, 120 of them in the NICU. Even though he...
